Targets of panhandlers pleading for city to get tough

By Guillermo X. Garciaggarcia@express-news.net

Updated 1:59 am, Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Photo: Jerry Lara / Glara@express-news.net

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A woman who goes by the name Mississippi (right) receives money from her traveling companion at Losoya and East Commerce streets. One hotel manager says panhandlers are “absolutely preying on folks downtown as well as tourists.”

A woman who goes by the name Mississippi (right) receives money from her traveling companion at Losoya and East Commerce streets. One hotel manager says panhandlers are “absolutely preying on folks downtown

San Antonio park police talk with Clyde Woods (left), who was panhandling at Alamo Plaza and East Commerce Street.

San Antonio park police talk with Clyde Woods (left), who was panhandling at Alamo Plaza and East Commerce Street.

Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News

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In this file photo, a woman begs for money from a missionary at the corner of Losoya Street and East Commerce Street. Giving money to a panhandler should not be criminalized.

In this file photo, a woman begs for money from a missionary at the corner of Losoya Street and East Commerce Street. Giving money to a panhandler should not be criminalized.

Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

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Pedestrians walk at the corner of East Commerce Street and Losoya Street on Nov. 1, 2011. According to the local hotel and motel association, the corner is one of the hotspots for panhandlers and the group wants City Council to strengthen the upcoming panhandling ordinance.

Pedestrians walk at the corner of East Commerce Street and Losoya Street on Nov. 1, 2011. According to the local hotel and motel association, the corner is one of the hotspots for panhandlers and the group

Olga Kucerak loves walking downtown during the early evening, but she makes sure to carry Mace.

One recent evening, a young man approached the Majestic Towers resident and aggressively sought a donation. When she refused, he followed her for almost a block, “and he kept calling me names because I would not give him a dollar. It was a very intimidating feeling.”

Kucerak's experience is not unique. Police records indicate the number of citations issued for aggressive panhandling is on pace to surpass last year's total of 297.

“This problem (with aggressive solicitation) is definitely on the increase,” said John Wallace, general manager of the Omni La Mansión del Rio and the Mokara Hotel & Spa. “Panhandlers are absolutely preying on folks downtown as well as tourists, and I am seeing that problem escalating almost on a daily basis.”

Wallace was part of a delegation of downtown merchants and residents who spoke Tuesday to the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board and warned that unless the city acts, its reputation as an international tourist destination will suffer.

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The increase in aggressive panhandling also threatens Mayor Julián Castro's decade of downtown vision and the city's efforts to encourage more businesses and people to relocate to the central part of the city.

On Thursday, the City Council is expected to adopt an ordinance that will toughen the city's panhandling and solicitation law. The proposal will prohibit such activity within 50 feet of ATMs, banks, public parking garages, parking meters, bus stops and marked crosswalks. The proposal doubles the exclusion zone from the current 25 feet and charges violators with a class C misdemeanor and a maximum $500 fine — the current punishment.

Marco Barros, the tourism council's president and CEO, provided a stack of letters from visitors as well as locals outlining their unpleasant experiences with people begging for money.

One of those came from Janie Thelen, a real estate agent who lives with her husband at the Vidorra condos, a downtown high-rise with units priced between $200,000 and $1 million.

“Guys are wandering the street, and you don't know if they are going to hit you over the head if you refuse them,” she said. “It is a threatening feeling to say no when they ask for money.”

“The message we are getting is that people, visitors or residents, are not feeling safe,” Barros said. “We can't have that.”

The officials were especially sensitive to the impression on visitors from some of the more aggressive panhandlers who congregate along Alamo Plaza, the intersection of Losoya and Commerce streets, along Rivercenter mall's perimeter and at entry points to the River Walk.

Tourism has an $11 billon economic impact on the city, and it accounts for one in every eight area jobs, according to a 2008 hospitality industry study.

Haven's Block suggested a “tough love” approach by police.

“First off, we need to separate the homeless from the panhandlers, the professionals” who he said “quickly turn the $1 you give them into a bottle of alcohol.”

Milton Guess, chairman of the tourism council's government affairs committee, said the problem affects more than downtown. “It is not only a downtown or River Walk issue, this is truly a citywide problem, and there must be a change (in the law) that makes it easier for law enforcement to enforce the ordinance,” he said.

Block said the problem “will be solved, for the most part, when we stop feeding the beast” and refuse to give in to panhandlers.

“I guarantee that if police drive them off high-traffic areas, three weeks from now they will not be on the River Walk, they will be in Austin,” he said.